Xbox One can tell when it’s getting too hot and will cool itself off

Hopefully the heat monitoring won't come at a performance cost.

The Xbox One will be able to monitor its own temperature and, if necessary, take countermeasures to prevent itself from getting dangerously hot, according to Gizmodo. Leo del Castillo, general manager of console development at Microsoft, stated in an interview that the units will be able to pull back on the throttle if they detect they’re running too hot.

This a standard feature on consumer computers, but modern consoles generally lack the ability to self-regulate their temperature. The Xbox One’s potential overheating problems could be compounded somewhat by its boxy design, inviting buyers to stack things on top of it or slot it into tight spaces.

The Xbox One is not intended to “ever have to go maximum speed under normal environmental conditions,” said del Castillo. But if the Xbox One detects that it’s generating a critical amount of heat, the console will be able to ramp down to using almost no power in order to cool off. This power-cycling ability should help to preserve the console's rumored 10-year life span target.

Ostensibly, this regulation would come at the expense of performance in some cases, and del Castillo didn't specify how the Xbox One will determine when it’s a good idea to slow itself down. But with an elegant design, the Xbox One should in theory be able to take advantage of quiet moments and maintain its cool.

Casey Johnston
Casey Johnston is the former Culture Editor at Ars Technica, and now does the occasional freelance story. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Applied Physics. Twitter@caseyjohnston

Well, there are only a few ways to enhance cooling. Increase fan speeds (increased noise), lowering clock speeds and voltages. The former has no impact on performance, the latter does depending upon the degree of underclocking and voltage regulation.

If Microsoft was smart, they'd also use a good thermal paste. Just applying Arctic Silver to the old 360 got people a few degrees Celsius decrease in temps. Combine that with good airflow, a solid heatsink with heat pipes and a copper base, and you might not need to worry too much. My guess - that ain't gonna happen in any of the latest consoles, because it would further increase costs.

So, the XB1 is getting a feature that most computers had a decade or more ago? Why is this news?

Because if i dont recall wrong,this feature it is new to consoles, at least that iam aware of, never heard of a feature like this in past consoles, therefore consoles gamers are quite happy with this, even if this feature has been for more than a decade on PC, for some of us, i mean console gamers, PC doesnt exists, so it is new

I don't follow consoles much so I must say I'm surprised to read that at least some consoles lack thermal regulations. Then again, I still to this day remember the smell when the fan on my Athlon XP 1500's heatsink/fan failed, so maybe I should say horrified instead of surprised.

Hopefully they do something to remind non-techies of the fact that heat caused by sticking it somewhere with poor or non-existence ventilation will cause issues, like having the plastic wrapper the console comes in saying in big letters "GIVE THIS THING BREATHING ROOM AND ALSO DON'T LET YOUR KID EAT ME." Otherwise you just know people will cram their console somewhere it doesn't belong, they will power down, and the bitching will begin.

It just amazes me that either this is a new concept in the world of consoles, or Microsoft is trying to say that it's a selling point. Both concepts are astounding in their ignorance. Engineers should know that cooling is extremely important to any computer (or computer-like) device.

I wonder if the console will have some way of notifying users that it is overheating other than dropping frames? That could be useful feedback, maybe it could suggest making sure nothing is stacked on top of it and that it is not in an enclosed space.

So, the XB1 is getting a feature that most computers had a decade or more ago? Why is this news?

Because if i dont recall wrong,this feature it is new to consoles, and consoles gamers are quite happy with this, even if this feature has been for more than a decade on PC, for some of us, i mean console gamers, PC doesnt exists, so it is new

It frightens me more that this is actually a new thing for consoles. This kind of thing was implemented in PC processors for a very good reason, to keep them from CATCHING ON FIRE if the fans suddenly died.

People worrying about the performance hit shouldn't. If your console is getting that hot that not only does the fan have to run at 100% but the unit also has to down-clock you are running your unit too hot. You can consider it broken until you fix whatever is causing the excessive heat, whether that is an internal defect or someone has wrapped it up in Christmas sweaters for that festive look.

I don't follow consoles much so I must say I'm surprised to read that at least some consoles lack thermal regulations. Then again, I still to this day remember the smell when the fan on my Athlon XP 1500's heatsink/fan failed, so maybe I should say horrified instead of surprised.

Hopefully they do something to remind non-techies of the fact that heat caused by sticking it somewhere with poor or non-existence ventilation will cause issues, like having the plastic wrapper the console comes in saying in big letters "GIVE THIS THING BREATHING ROOM AND ALSO DON'T LET YOUR KID EAT ME." Otherwise you just know people will cram their console somewhere it doesn't belong, they will power down, and the bitching will begin.

Tech support: "So you say that there is some warping of your X-Box's case?"Customer: "More like it's a black puddle with a glowing red ring in it."Tech support: "My script says to clear the vents of any lint or other blockage, but I really don't think that's going to help."

Was this type of thermal control typical of computers when the Xbox 360 was released? I'm just wondering if this is new simply because processors have gotten hotter in the intervening time (which I'm sure is the case) or there was a difference between consoles and computers in this regard for the previous console generation.

Was this type of thermal control typical of computers when the Xbox 360 was released? I'm just wondering if this is new simply because processors have gotten hotter in the intervening time (which I'm sure is the case) or there was a difference between consoles and computers in this regard for the previous console generation.

This stuff has been around and software controllable since the early 2000s. Hell I even have servers from 2005 that have it.

Someone, somewhere, is going to figure out the bits of a player-vs-player game that cause throttling and liquid-cool their own console for an advantage.

And I will wonder at the opportunity cost of all that ingenuity.

You've got it backwards. No game would ship with sections that caused a majority of players to drop frames and allow this cheap advantage.

The types of vectors where games are vulnerable would be the 'host' of a multiplayer game tricking the throttling into engaging to slow down updates. In particular, the Gears of War series was terribly dependent on the host's connection and console. In that case external software was used to drop packets going to/from the enemy team. That's detectable by the consoles though, intermittent heat while hosting a game would be harder to identify as staged.

And your mawkish concern over the 'opportunity cost' is so asinine. Breaking our toys is how a lot of us learned our computer chops in the first place. I can't imagine the fantasy world you live in where a 12 year old is putting down a video game to open up architectural references.

"The Xbox One will be able to monitor its own temperature and, if necessary, take countermeasures to prevent itself from getting dangerously hot"

No.... Really? My 10 yo plasma TV has a fan that kicks in when the panel runs for too long and gets too hot. Not to mention the dozens of computers I owned or used. So this is um.... new for a console? Weird.

Regulate as in "throttle down the CPU and GPU speed when it gets too hot, regardless of software's demands"?

Or Regulate as in "aggressive downclocking, downvolting and zero-core power for milliseconds when software allows it", reducing overall power consumption because it's rare for software to need 100% of everything 100% of the time?

Or regulate as in "turn the fan up really high" - which the PS3 definitely could do.

The Xbox One’s potential overheating problems could be compounded somewhat by its boxy design, inviting buyers to stack things on top of it or slot it into tight spaces.

No other console to date has been boxy and been shoved into spaces that restrict their airflow. This is yet another of Microsoft's gigantic blunders with this system. Everything was working fine in the gaming world, then they come along and mandate that we gamers have a boxy system?! Damn them! </sarcasm>

Someone, somewhere, is going to figure out the bits of a player-vs-player game that cause throttling and liquid-cool their own console for an advantage.

And I will wonder at the opportunity cost of all that ingenuity.

You've got it backwards. No game would ship with sections that caused a majority of players to drop frames and allow this cheap advantage.

The types of vectors where games are vulnerable would be the 'host' of a multiplayer game tricking the throttling into engaging to slow down updates. In particular, the Gears of War series was terribly dependent on the host's connection and console. In that case external software was used to drop packets going to/from the enemy team. That's detectable by the consoles though, intermittent heat while hosting a game would be harder to identify as staged.

And your mawkish concern over the 'opportunity cost' is so asinine. Breaking our toys is how a lot of us learned our computer chops in the first place. I can't imagine the fantasy world you live in where a 12 year old is putting down a video game to open up architectural references.

I didn't mean that the effort to figure out a cooling solution is wasted (I don't even think it would be that hard), but probing the game itself for the right places to intervene. I've seen online guides that must represent thousands of hours of work on figuring out the edge cases of games that don't affect day-to-day usage at all. One old example that sticks in my mind was someone who figured out how rounding error affected ship costs in Master of Orion II in case, you know, you wanted to put a few thousand really tiny weapons into a Doomstar.

Probing interesting bugs, or sharing your expertise to help other players is one thing. I just don't see mixmaxing the technical implementation of a game as in the spirit of enjoying the game.

why is it that whenever they post console news pc gamers come to talk smack i mean if your all powerful machines are so great why aren't you playing them only thing i can think is your jealous of the fact that

1 consoles cost a fraction of gaming pcs and even thou we don't have super uber graphics they still close enough that nobody gives a dam

2 when we go to the stores we don't have to read the box to make sure it will run on our system unless you count what system is for but honestly most gaming stores have big signs that say ps3/360/wii

3 most commercials for a game now show 360/ps3 gameplay and in a little corner on the bottom it say oh almost forgot also available on pc

Wasn't this one of the major causes of Red Ring of Death, overheating and burn out?

As far as I recall (I could be incorrect), a strong factor was the new unleaded solder required for RoHS certification not working very well with surface-mounted components on a number of GPUs, certainly laptop GPUs at the time suffered. The "put it under a blanket" technique was essentially a broke-down reflow oven that often temporarily "cured" the problem, but not for very long.

So yes, "overheating", but weak/cold solder joints are not as much of an issue with today's technology. I think we'll all be pretty happy with the build quality on all the coming gen of consoles.*

*At least with regards to the root causes of RROD/YLOD. There will inevitably be new and unrelated design flaws.

Sorry how is temperature regulation new to consoles.. when fan noise is one the main things people hated about the 360?Also tear down any PS3 and you will see a massive fan and heatsink.Exactly what were these things doing?!??? And so now we can speculate about the magical ways the Xbox will cool down when it gets too hot?

Sorry how is temperature regulation new to consoles.. when fan noise is one the main things people hated about the 360?Also tear down any PS3 and you will see a massive fan and heatsink.Exactly what were these things doing?!??? And so now we can speculate about the magical ways the Xbox will cool down when it gets too hot?

Sorry how is temperature regulation new to consoles.. when fan noise is one the main things people hated about the 360?Also tear down any PS3 and you will see a massive fan and heatsink.Exactly what were these things doing?!??? And so now we can speculate about the magical ways the Xbox will cool down when it gets too hot?

I dont know too much about it myself, but they stated self-regulate temperature, for me is like they have an internal device that meassures temperature and controls it when it reaches certain levels, something like a safety valve on some oil processing units, although PC experts can make a more accurate comparision, therefore i think it is not a fan per-se, therfore it might be a new thing not seen on past consoles.

P.S there you have it what Shape GSX Stated " Controlling core frequency and voltage is new in a console" it is a more accurate description, therefore it is a very different thing from a fan

Sorry how is temperature regulation new to consoles.. when fan noise is one the main things people hated about the 360?Also tear down any PS3 and you will see a massive fan and heatsink.Exactly what were these things doing?!??? And so now we can speculate about the magical ways the Xbox will cool down when it gets too hot?

Controlling fan speed is not new in a console.

Controlling core frequency and voltage is new in a console.

Oh come on. Im referring to the title of this article, and: "modern consoles generally lack the ability to self-regulate their temperature."

Where does the article specify controlling core frequency and voltage? It implies it sure-but not a direct quote to be seen but please point it out if I missed it